ROAST LEG OF LAMB

I am really late in writing this but on Easter Sunday Pascal and I cooked a roast lamb. I wanted to cook lamb with feta and mint but we had cooked that recently so he wanted a change. It had to be lamb and it had to be a roast (so we could pop to the pub for a scotch egg while it cooked!) and this is what we ended up eating along with Mediterranean stuffed peppers.

Here is the recipe for 8 people using a leg of lamb. We were only cooking for the two of us and couldn't buy a leg so had to use a shoulder so please bear that in mind when you see the photos!

Ingredients for 8 people:

1.8-2.2kg whole leg of lamb
Sea salt
6 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
12 anchovies, sliced in halved lengthways (I didn't slice them - too lazy)!
15g pack of fresh rosemary (7-8 sprigs - Pascal went OTT picking some from the garden)
3 tbsp groundnut oil (only if you have it - I used olive oil)

For the sauce:
100ml dry white wine
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
500ml chicken stock

Season the lamb with salt.

Cut the garlic into slivers. Then take a slice of anchovy and wrap it round a sliver of garlic and two rosemary leaves. Continue to do this until you have used all the anchovies…it is a pretty messy process. 

Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan over a high heat. When the oil is smoking is smoking hot, add the lamb and sear until golden brown on all sides.

Put the lamb on a board, using a sharp knife cut slits in the surface of the lamb at regular intervals. Use a small spoon to enlarge the holes and stuff them with the anchovies, garlic and rosemary. This was messy once again and pretty difficult in a shoulder of lamb as it kept moving around! Mine should have been a lot neater...

Place the remaining sprigs of rosemary in the bottom of a roasting tin and place the lamb on top.

Pour 150ml water into the bottom of the pan and cook as recommended on the packaging or to your liking (ours took a couple of hours). When it is cooked, remove the lamb from the oven, wrap it in foil and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes.

While the meat is resting, it is time to make the sauce. Place the roasting tray over a medium high heat and allow the lamb juices to come to a boil and reduce by half.

Add the white wine and use a spatula or wooden spoon to scrape all the delicious bits from the bottom of the pan. Once again allow the liquid to reduce by half. 

Add the chicken stock and wait for it again to reduce by half.

Pour off any excess fat and then strain the liquid through a fine sieve. Stir in the whole grain mustard and pour into a jug to serve.

Finally open up the lamb, carve and serve.

It was absolutely delicious - even if you don't like anchovies it doesn't matter as you don't even taste them, they just enhance the flavour. I can't tell you how good our lunch was - amazing!! I will be cooking this again before next Easter rolls round!!